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I'm using Mandrake 8.1 on my primary "desktop" PC. I thought it was only for newbies until I tried it. It was then that I found out that Mandrake was better than Red Hat in every way. Up to that point I had been using Caldera for stability and NetWare compatibility.

I started with Slackware and kernel 1.0.8, and used it for quite a while. I used Caldera when the first public betas came out, and came to prefer it, especially after ISO images became available. I've kept up with Red Hat, with quite a few retail boxes to show for it. I haven't had the time to play with SuSE recently (I'm secretly pissed because the yellow-haired guy never comes to COMDEX anymore). I tried Debian, but never came to like it.

As for the "baby BSDs", I started with 386/BSD on an old AT&T server that I inhereted. I've done NetBSD on Alphas, OpenBSD on edge computers (before the RSA copyright expired), and FreeBSD on PCs for running sendmail. They're all OK, but Linux w/ GNU utilities has surpassed them all IMHO.

On 2002-03-01 10:23, Bruce wrote:
Especially if you like remote holes!

O.K. -- any thoughts on what that might mean ??

Mandrake is worse than Redhat in shipping with too much turned on. If you stick a default Mandrake 8.x install on the internet (not firewalled), I'd expect it to last ~24 hours un-rooted.

Bruce

I've always done a custom install, so I never see what the defaults are. But I suppose that explains why they try to talk you out of installing network services during the 8.1 install. All the more reason to consider Mandrake a power user distro!

Funny, I've always thought of it as the other end of the spectrum (ie, a Linux-for-newbies distro).

That's what I thought too, but I was forced to change my mind after I actually used it. It's quite good IMHO. It also packages KDE just the way I like it.

Last time I saw Mandrake was ~ 2 years ago - I might have to cook some ISO's and have a gander, see how it's changed....

Yes, do. A lot has changed over the last 2 years. There's a beta of 8.2 available, that has some new graphical admin tools.

Dual Boot WinNT primary, SuSE 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 secondary. Installation gets easier each time. Still a little nervous using Linux.

On 2002-03-05 07:19, Bruce wrote:
Mandrake is worse than Redhat in shipping with too much turned on. If you stick a default Mandrake 8.x install on the internet (not firewalled), I'd expect it to last ~24 hours un-rooted.

Bruce

You may be right, but I'm not forced to do that and haven't done that. There are users of the "MANLY" distros who have been whacked/rooted, also.

I use MDK 8.0 as my personal system on my old laptop. It runs well, it has all the flexibility of ANY Linux distro, and I can and do customize it to my hearts content.

Yes, if you take all the defaults on a "recommended" install, and make no corrections or compensations, you will have problems. That's why whenever I respond to a question about how to install Mandrake, I always suggest the "expert" install and to look at what is being installed. I'm not the world's great authority on Linux or Mandrake, but I do understand the consequences of a wide-open system -- based on ANY operating system.

I just can't resist these poll thingies. Kind of lame for my first TR forum post, but hey..

I run Slack 8, upgraded with most of the packages in slack-current. I love the power that Slackware gives you (or, more accurately, forces you to take, hehe) over your system.

That said, I'm sort of an infidel in the Church of Slack in that I tested Mandrake 8.2beta2 recently and was very impressed. I'd consider using it (well, when it's out of beta) in the future.

There's something to be said for having a highly useable, attractive and relatively complete X setup right off the CD.

I don't need no stinkin' GUI config tools, though!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: pellmell on 2002-03-13 11:56 ]</font>

I currently have one of my extra computers running the Lindows Beta. I like it, nice GUI especially for a Windows junkie like me

0oALio0, you're going to hell.

Slackware 8. It rocks .

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: geogeek on 2002-03-25 14:06 ]</font>

I user Red Hat right now, but I'm thinking of giving SuSE a try.

Not a Linux distro, but I run FreeBSD 4.5 on one of my computers.

Running Red Hat 7.2 at home and work. At work we also have some Solaris 8 and some FreeBSD. Sun Blade 100's with the high end graphics cards are sweet!